Topeka, Kansas — An Operation Rescue Staff member has been notified by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts (KSBHA) that there has been another delay in the formal disciplinary hearing of Ann Kristin Neuhaus, an abortionist who formerly provided George Tiller’s abortion patients the second referrals required for post-viability abortions in Kansas.
The hearing, which was to begin June 6, has been rescheduled to September 12-14 at the Shawnee County Courthouse in Topeka. Officials with the KSBHA told Cheryl Sullenger on Friday that the hearing was delayed due to “witness availability.” This is the fourth time Neuhaus’ disciplinary hearing has been delayed.
Neuhaus is accused of the following in each of the eleven counts against her:
• Failure to perform adequate patient interview.
• Failure to obtain adequate patient history.
• Failure to adequately evaluate the “behavioral or functional impact” of the patient’s condition and symptoms.
• Failure to meet the standard of care to the degree of constituting ordinary negligence.
• Failure to keep adequate medical records.
This is not Neuhaus’ first encounter with the KSBHA. Neuhaus came under Board discipline in 1999 and again in 2001 for medical abuses, which included an alleged forced abortion on a woman who had withdrawn her consent, shoddy record-keeping, and lack of proper patient care. The KSBHA declared at that time that Neuhaus was a “danger to the public” and limited her ability to practice medicine.
The current charges against Neuhaus stem from a complaint filed by Sullenger in February, 2007, alleging that Neuhaus had an improper relationship with Tiller that violated the late-term abortion law requiring that the second referring physician have no legal or financial affiliation with the abortionist. That same complaint also netted an 11-count disciplinary petition against George Tiller for committing illegal late-term abortions, which was pending against Tiller at the time of his death. While Tiller had been acquitted of similar criminal charges, the KSBHA made it clear that their case was based on a different standard than criminal cases and would proceed. However, when Tiller died in 2009, the case against him was closed.
“We believe strongly that Neuhaus improperly issued second referrals that resulted in illegal late-term abortions in Kansas that endangered the lives of women and wrongly killed their viable babies. Couple that with her previous problems and we are convinced the Neuhaus presents a significant danger to the public,” said Sullenger. “Since Neuhaus has expressed a desire to resume abortions in another state, it is imperative that the Board revokes her license without further delay for the sake of public safety.”
Operation Rescue plans to attend the hearing.
Read the Neuhaus Disciplinary Petition